UN calls for urgent action to protect children from online information risks
The UN warns that over 80% of youth aged 15–24 are online, facing risks like disinformation and AI-driven harms, and urges coordinated action to protect and empower them.
More than 80% of young people aged 15 to 24 are now online globally, with those in low-income countries connected at nearly twice the rate of older populations. The UN highlights that this hyper-connected generation faces disproportionate risks to information integrity, including disinformation, harassment, algorithmic biases and the malicious use of artificial intelligence. The UN’s new brief, released ahead of International Youth Day, calls on governments, tech firms, advertisers, media and researchers to prioritise both protection and participation for young people in digital spaces.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has compared unregulated AI to untested medicine, emphasising that children should not be used as test subjects. He previously stated at the Global Dialogue on AI Governance that when harm occurs, accountability must not be deflected to algorithms. The brief argues that the harms young people experience are not accidental but stem from business models designed to monetise attention and data, often through manipulative design choices that maximise engagement and spending.
The UN brief warns that AI is advancing faster than safeguards can be implemented, compounding risks such as AI-generated content and AI-facilitated exploitation. It also highlights increasingly covert advertising tactics that exploit children to drive online spending. The document states that these practices normalise commercial surveillance and manipulative design during critical developmental years, while noting that young people are not only victims but also creators and organisers in digital spaces.
The brief stresses that children and youth must be included in research and policymaking to address information integrity challenges. It notes growing policy debates on addictive design, behavioural advertising and privacy, but warns that the rapid rise of AI is narrowing the window to integrate children’s rights into governance frameworks. The UN outlines pathways for governments, companies and researchers to take practical action, including through its ongoing AI regulation efforts like the Global Dialogue and the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.